The attitudes and friendship intentions of children in United Kingdom mainstream schools towards peers with physical or intellectual disabilities

Abstract

This study investigated typically developing children's attitudes to physical and intellectual disabilities using the Peer Attitudes Toward the Handicapped Scale (PATHS). Participants were 202 children aged from 9 to 12 years in mainstream classes in the UK. The effect of knowledge about disabilities on attitudes was investigated by controlling whether children received a description of either a child with cerebral palsy or a child with Down syndrome before or after completing the PATHS. Children's friendship intentions towards the described child were also elicited. More positive attitudes toward intellectual disabilities were expressed by children provided with information about Down syndrome. More negative attitudes toward physical disability were expressed by children provided with information about cerebral palsy. This pattern was mostly attributable to the responses of girls who appeared to be more sensitive to the provision of information. Only children's attitudes to physical disability predicted friendship intentions.